Contact with Columbia Lost!

[Ned]

They apparently had a problem with the Spacehab cooling. The day before landing, they were looking for water that may have leaked out of the Spacehab. Why? How could this interfere with landing.

Here is a portion of the report from STS 104 - 16.

" Commander Rick Husband and Flight Engineer Kalpana Chawla of the day shift took turns simulating landing on the PILOT computer-based training system. Pilot Willie McCool of the night shift will get in his practice session overnight. Landing is scheduled for 8:16 a.m. CST Saturday and preliminary forecasts show excellent conditions at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. If weather decides not to cooperate, there are plenty of supplies to support the crew until conditions are favorable.

Husband also peeked under the floor of the Spacehab module to look for water that might have leaked out of the balky air-conditioning system earlier in the mission. He reported finding no moisture that could contaminate Spacehab systems if jostled during Saturday’s re-entry and landing, but covered several holes in the water sub-assembly with tape as a precaution. "

[Hurricane]

This is bad. My condoleances to all who died.

[faded glory]

pieces all over texas. Slack-Jawed Yokels report UFO landings.

[DanS]

No, VentureStar wasn't using the SR-71 engines. They were new linear aerospike engines. The tech has been around for years but had never been developed because of it's considered a challenging tech. For VentureStar they decided to develop the engine, but hit some snags.

Anyway, panag is right that it wasn't a popular program with the Air Force. It had no pilots. I have my suspicions otherwise.

[OliverFA]

Originally posted by paiktis22
Because you kill their children, women and people on a weekly basis and there's nothing they can do about it.

So if the brother of a killer dies you celebrate it? That's a nice expression of humanity. Nice people these palestinians :P

Not to mention that this is YOUR point of view, which I won't argue about because this thread is about the Columbia crash.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by panag
read above

I was merely asking Eli to clarify the source of his news. Do take up the issue with your fellow countryman.

[Bereta_Eder]

It is not my point of view, but an explanation of reality to those not able to grasp it. Also to some Pals all are one and vice versa. Not to mention he was a fighter pilot.
Nice resolution of yours that you won't argue it. Stick to it.

[chequita guevara]

Bunnygrrl and I were gonna drive down to Cape Canaveral for the March 1st launching.

I feel bad for the families, but these explorers died doing what they loved. We should be so lucky.

[Sirotnikov]

Eek.


Ilan Ramon's family was invited to the TV news studio and to their horror had to watch the events as they happenned, in that studio.

[Urban Ranger]

It is a sad day for space exploration. Okay, it's not really space exploration, but they were studying the effects of zero-g or something.

Thumbs up to Japan and the PRC taking up the slack.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ned
Why? How could this interfere with landing.

It could throw off the weight or it could become superheated, expand, and pop something. It could also cause a short in a critical system.

[Velociryx]

Big C....was gonna answer your question, but it seems that others have done a fine job of doing that already, so I'll just hit some of their previously mentioned points.

The tragedy here, has something to do with the loss of human life, that's true. But as you say, compared to the loss of life on the streets of any major city, it's a drop in the bucket (that's a rather callous way of looking at it, but it is, apparently, your view, so we'll go with it).

But that's not what lies at the center of the tragedy.

At the center of the tragedy is the loss of an important symbol.

Somebody mentioned the death of JFK, and that's an apt comparison. You could say...."well yeah, but it was just one guy....$hit happens."

And technically, that is correct, but if that one guy happens to be the embodiment of an important symbol, then it IS tragic. Moreso than the "average" parade of daily tragedies we read about in the local paper.

It's simply larger than that, because of the importance of the symbol, having nothing to do about placing more value on certain human lives, and everything to do with the importance of the symbol.

Get it?

-=Vel=-

[Solver]

Ilan Ramon's family was invited to the TV news studio and to their horror had to watch the events as they happenned, in that studio.

That's terrible, indeed .

[Solver]

Vel says it. But people should try fighting being too addicted or whatever can it be called, to symbols. Symbols are a great target for terrorists - like the WTC was targeted, as a symbol of New York and the American economic strength.

[Panag]

newsconference at 1 pm eastern